A Step Through Time
by The Goblet
Summary: When Bill is gravely injured in battle without access to a healer, there is only one way to save his life.


A Step Through Time 

by The Goblet

**Email:** http/borgin. Harry Potter  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Status:** Complete  
**Part:** 1 / 1  
**Length:** 3,512 words  
**Categories:** Action/Adventures, Alternate Universe, Fluff, Mpreg, Post-War  
**Pairings:** Severus Snape ?? Decline to State  
**Characters:** Remus Lupin, Bill Weasley, Molly Weasley  
**Warnings:** Mpreg, Slash  
**Spoilers:** HBP

**Summary:**  
When Bill is gravely injured in battle without access to a healer, there is only one way to save his life.

**Author's Notes:**  
Fleur never met Bill.

**Beta:**  
Many thanks to Tall Oaks, Caitlin and Kill Gore Trout Fish

**Disclaimer:**  
This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

All characters depicted herein in adult situations may safely be assumed to be over 18.

* * *

Death Eaters had finally breached Hogwarts wards and commenced a ferocious attack. Their method of entrance was brilliant in its simplicity: countless unregistered portkeys that had transported them directly into the school itself.

The Order -after being forewarned of the plan by Snape, was fighting hard to keep the enemy from the rest of the school. The intelligence they had received indicated that three separate arrival sites had been selected by the invaders. Each had then been thoroughly warded to prevent all access to the rest of school, and four Order members were posted to guard each one.

Bill Weasley had been assigned to watch over the Astronomy Tower, along with Tonks, Remus and Moody. They had been ready and waiting, wands poised, when the Death Eaters began to portkey in. Only a few arrived at first, and the four were ready for them; stunning the intruders, and binding them hand and foot with silver ropes. Soon though, there was a steady stream of bodies and the tower was began to fill up, as the intruders soon realized that the rest of the school was inaccessible to them.

The invading witches and wizards ignored the four Order members, rushing to attack the castle instead. When they found that they were trapped, they swiftly returned ...to take their frustration out on the Order's guards.

The sheer number of ever-arriving Death Eaters throwing curses and hexes was overwhelming. Bill became separated from his team members, and soon after a motley crew of no less than eight wizards had him pinned down. He stood his ground, firing off curses as though there was no tomorrow: which, in his case, could very have well been true.

A familiar voice cried out in the din; "Back! Portkey back! We are useless here."

The Gryffindor almost collapsed in relief as he heard the voice of their spy. A few moments ago, he was sure that he would not survive this night, but with Snape calling a retreat, the Death Eaters slowly began to disappear, at last.

Not having seen the Order's mole for over a week since the Slytherin had been summoned during the middle of the night, Bill peered at the departing dark wizards, searching for a glimpse of the haughty wizard.

He finally found him in a still-crowded room. The Potions Master was standing with his back to him, still recognizable by his shoulder-length black hair. He was speaking earnestly with one of the Death Eaters. Bill whispered his name, wanting to call out to him - though he knew he couldn't. When the cold brown eyes of the Death Eater suddenly latched onto his own, he realised in horror that he might have blown Snape's cover. Bill raised his wand ... ready to defend himself, or the Potions Master from the Death Eater.

Time slowed as the brown-eyed mage pushed Snape to the ground, raised his wand and screamed out a curse. Blue lightening shot towards the Cursebreaker, taking what seemed like an eternity to reach him. The spell hit him squarely in the chest, knocking him back against a wall, before he crashed to the ground.

As he looked down, Bill saw blood beginning to soak through his robes. He looked up, half expecting to see the brown-eyed monster lording over him, as he made ready to finish the job. But he was nowhere to be seen; the room was emptying out fast now, and both Remus and Snape were rushing towards him.

Snape reached him first, ripping open Bill's robes to view the wound below. He turned to Remus as the other wizard let out a gasp as he saw the extent of his injuries. The werewolf himself was bleeding from a gash on his forehead, but seemed otherwise unharmed.

"Can you take him to Poppy?" the Potions Master barked.

Remus shook his head. "The entrance is barred. It would take at least 30 minutes to take the wards down."

Swearing under his breath, the Slytherin ripped a strip of fabric from the bottom of Bill's robes and began to fasten it around his wounds. "He only has ten minutes," he muttered, "Twenty minutes at the most."

Bill looked up with wild eyes. "Tell my mother that I love her," he whispered hoarsely to Remus. He turned to Snape. "Kill me now."

Neither man spoke, shocked as they were by his request.

"Cast a disillusionment charm," the Slytherin ordered as he rushed away, ignoring the dying man's plea.

As Remus cast the charm, Bill followed the retreating wizard with his eyes, and saw him kneel beside the unmoving body of his attacker. The Slytherin removed something from the dead man's robes and rushed back.

Snape reached forward and wrapped a thin chain around Bill's neck.

"You can tell your mother yourself that you love her," he said gruffly. He turned towards Remus. "Can you be here in two hours, with the path to the infirmary unobstructed?"

The werewolf nodded.

"Timeturner," Snape told Bill. "Lupin will be here in two hours to collect you. _You are not going to die._" The Slytherin leant forward and turned the hourglass hanging around his neck two times.

The Gryffindor relaxed into the stone wall as his comrade's worried faces melted away. The noise of the attack, of moaning and screaming Death Eaters, of curses flying through the air, of portkeying wizards all disappeared in a shimmer of light.

* * *

When Bill was able to see again, the Astronomy Tower was silent. He lifted himself up on his elbows and surveyed his surroundings. The Death Eaters were all gone. As, too, were all signs of the battle. There was no broken furniture, or bloodstains... or anything.

The entire room looked as though there had never been an attack.

"You are here," a soft voice came from his right. He moved, gasping at the pain from his chest.

Snape came into view. He knelt down beside him and checked the wound beneath the bandages.

"Where's Remus?" Bill asked hoarsely.

"He could not make it," the Potions Master replied, while he conjured a stretcher, and then helped him onto it. The Gryffindor took the time to study his rescuer. He seemed older than a few moments ago, with grey hair touching his temples. He seemed healthier, and had gained weight.

The stretcher levitated into the air, and Bill was hovered to the height of a small plaque. He read it as the Slytherin rechecked his wound. 'In Memory of William Arthur Weasley. 1963 - 1997'

"Severus?" he called, deeply worried. Something was _not_ right.

The Potion Master's face swam into view. "There was a problem with the Timeturner," he said slowly.

"What type of problem?" Bill asked hoarsely.

"It does not matter," the other wizard replied. "What matters now is to get you to Poppy."

With that, the Slytherin refused to explain anymore, and rushed him to the hospital wing.

* * *

Sitting up in bed a few hours later, Bill buried a small mountain of peas in his mashed potato.

Madam Pomfrey had seemed to be expecting him... but not expecting him. And the plaque in the Astronomy Tower had suggested that he had been counted as one of the casualties.

All he wanted to know was what had happened, and no one seemed to be willing to provide those answers.

The Cursebreaker pushed his food away in frustration. He didn't even know what _year_ it was.

There was a knock on the door. "Feeling poorly?"

Bill's head snapped up as he recognised Snape's voice.

"What the _hell_ is going on?" he asked, frustrated. Now was not the time for civility. Three hours ago he had been fighting: it had been 1997. Now... now his world was completely different.

The Slytherin stalked into the room and stood at the end of his bed. "Poppy said you had questions."

"Of course I have questions!" Bill exclaimed. "What happened? When am I? Why does everyone think I'm dead?"

"Perhaps it would be best for me to start from the beginning," the Potions Master replied. He took a deep breath. "Rabastan LeStrange saw you across the room, and thought you were about to assassinate me," he explained, "He moved to eliminate you. He cast a curse, which slowly began to cut your heart out of your chest."

"When you were injured, Moody killed him, in order to stop him from killing you."

"I remember all this, it only happened a few hours ago."

The Potions Master inclined his head. "So it did. I apologize.

"You should then remember me removing a Timeturner from Rabastan's body, and sending you two hours into the future. Your injuries were severe, and we were all locked in the Tower."

Bill nodded, he was getting anxious: this he all knew already.

"The Timeturner malfunctioned. It did not send you two hours into the future, it send you two years into the future."

"Two _years_!" the Cursebreaker replied, "Does that mean that it is now 1999?"

"That is correct. Lupin remained in the Astronomy Tower for three days, waiting for you. I then returned on each 'two' anniversary: two weeks later, two months, two seasons, and now two years. I must confess my gratitude that the Timeturner worked on years and not decades, centuries or millennia."

"And everyone thinks I'm dead?"

"Lupin and I decided that that might be for the best. We were not prepared to answer the questions that would be asked if we revealed the use of a Timeturner. Your mother has been informed of your miraculous reappearance and will be descending on you like a ...well ... mother as soon as she arrives. She has spent the last two years grieving."

Bill picked at the blankets on the bed. He felt terrible for what his family and friends had gone through. He looked up at Snape.

"What about you?" he asked softly.

"What do you mean?"

"Severus, please," replied Bill, not wishing to ask the question he dearly wanted answered.

"I have not stopped returning to the Astronomy Tower to find you," the Potions Master said. "I even placed wards to signal me if they detected your arrival."

"Do you..." Bill whispered. He stopped, unable to ask that question without preamble. "You loved me before, at the time I disappeared. Do you still love me now? You must know that my feelings haven't changed."

Severus looked at him. "You love the man I was then," he said quietly. "Much has changed in two years."

Bill's heart broke. "You have moved on then?" he said softly, returning his attention to the threads on his blanket.

"My life has become very different since then," was the carefully worded response. "We cannot have now what we had before."

"There is someone else, then," he said quietly.

"My life is very different," Severus repeated. "There is... a place for you... if you wish."

Bill's head was swimming. He felt overwhelmed. The entire situation was insane. "We were going to get married," he choked out. "I _love_ you. Why couldn't you have waited? I was coming back; you _knew_ I was coming back."

"BILL!" came a cry from the door as his mother ran into the room.

"We will talk," Severus whispered, as Molly Weasley attacked her son with a fervent hug. "Later," he added, eyeing the Weasley matriarch. "I will need to explain ... alone."

With that, the Potions Master retreated from the room, leaving Bill alone with his doting and relieved parents.

* * *

Several days later, the Order was reconvening at Hogwarts to discuss what had happened to Bill on the night of the attack.

Bill himself had been whisked away by his mother, and relocated to the Burrow. He was still coming to terms with the fact that he had missed two years of life. He was now, technically, only thirteen days older than Charlie, an uncle to a gorgeous three-month-old baby girl and a brother-in-law to several young witches. That he could cope with; though sister-in-law Diana had not taken well to being called Marguerite. Why Fred and George had married identical twins, he did not know.

What caused him the most bother though, was Severus. They had formed a strong bond working in the Order together, and had become lovers. Despite his mother's well-intentioned meddling in his love life, setting him up with 'nice' witches, he had fallen in love with the Potions Master. He _knew_ that the wizard returned that love. So _how_ could he have moved on? How could he have given up hope?

"Hello Bill."

A soft voice interrupted his thoughts. He turned towards the wizard who was taking a seat beside him.

"Remus, hello," he replied warmly. "You are well?"

The werewolf smiled. "Back, teaching at Hogwarts. I've missed you."

Bill let out a sad laugh. "I wish I could say the same."

"It must be hard getting used to it all."

He nodded. "It feels so surreal, like a bad dream. Any minute now I'm going to wake up and everything will be back to normal."

Remus patted his shoulder. "If there is anything I can do to help..."

Minerva tapped the side of her water glass with her wand, the tinkering sound gaining everyone's attention. "Is everyone present?" she asked.

"Snape is missing," Fred called out. There was a murmuring among the Order members.

"Severus sends his apologies," said Remus. "William has a stomach bug, and has been quite ill all night. He didn't want to leave him."

Molly harrumphed. "What type of example is he setting to the students?" She said, and turned to Minerva. "He is undermining the very moral fibre of those children, living without a chaperone with that boy."

Bill's heart stopped as he heard the news. Severus had, most definitely, moved on. He had a lover: a live-in, younger lover; a lover who shared his own first name. The _bastard_.

"Molly, now is not the time for this discussion," said the Headmistress. "I have heard your complaints before, and I am resolved to not throw either one of them out due to lack of moral fibre. They are hardly corrupting anyone." She glared at the witch from across the table.

"Now," she continued, "let's get down to business. Bill, welcome back."

* * *

The Order meeting had gone on for hours. Moody and Shacklebolt were particularly interested in the Timeturner he had used, and they all wanted to have a word with Severus. Molly was particularly unhappy that the Potions Master had never once mentioned that he had sent Bill into the future.

Through the questioning and the arguments, all Bill could think about was Severus. He could not believe that the one he loved could have betrayed him like that. How could he have taken another lover when he knew he was going to return? How could he take another lover who even shared his first name?

All he could think of doing was going and confronting the man who had broken his heart. He had hurt him, and hurt him badly, and he needed him to know it. So, as soon as the Order meeting had adjourned - pending Snape's availability later that week - Bill evaded his mother, and headed down towards the dungeons.

He reached the door to Severus' private chambers, and knocked loudly. He waited for several moments before thumping on the door once more. "SNAPE! OPEN UP!" he shouted through the door.

It was opened rather abruptly seconds later by the Potions Master, who was hastily tying a bathrobe around his body. "What is wrong?" he asked, his voice concerned.

Bill took one look at Severus' attire and saw red. He stalked into the room, anger motivating him. "He's here, isn't he?" he hissed as the door closed behind him.

"Who?"

"William."

Severus' hand went to his throat. "You know about William?" he asked softly.

Bill scoffed. "He was mentioned at the Order meeting. You've made quite a scandal, haven't you?"

The Potions Master tightened the sash on his robe. "I did not want you to find out this way. I wanted to tell you myself, when you were ready."

"Oh, so you _were_ planning to tell me, were you?"

"Of course. I was merely waiting until you had become more accustomed to your ordeal." Severus said as he straightened up; "Would you like to meet him?" he asked.

"_Meet_ him?" Bill asked. The git wanted to know if _he_ would like to _meet_ his new lover?

"He has been ill," Severus explained. "He is asleep now, in the bedroom."

Bill stared at his lover for a long time. Did he want to meet the boy who had replaced him?

"Come," the Slytherin urged. "He looks like an angel when he is asleep." He walked across the room and opened the door to his bedroom.

Without thinking about what he was doing, Bill followed his ex into the bedroom. He spied the bed. The bedspread was rumpled and a large book lay on the covers, but otherwise it was empty.

He looked around the room, and was surprised to see a large cot in one corner. Severus was bending down, and picking up a small child from inside. He turned, a pyjama-clad baby in his arms.

"Bill, meet William," he said softly.

"Oh," was Bill's only response.

Snape raised an eyebrow.

"I was expecting... someone older."

"Older? He is sixteen months old. How much older did you expect?"

"Sixteen months?" Bill asked.

"Sixteen months. He was born on Valentine's Day."

"He would have been conceived before I disappeared."

"Of course he was."

Bill felt the colour drain from his face: Severus hadn't left him after he had disappeared; he had been cheating on him before that. William was his _son_. His illegitimate son, no wonder his mother was against him being at the school.

"You... you said you loved me."

"I do."

"So you _cheated_ on me?" Bill accused, "You got some witch pregnant?"

Severus held his son close as he fussed from Bill's tone. "Just what were you told about William?" he asked, warily.

The Gryffindor took a step back. "That you were absent because he was ill. And that Mum didn't approve of him living here with you, unchaperoned."

"Bill, sit down on the bed. It is about time we talked," Severus said with authority, walking over to the bedroom door, and locking it with a flick of his wand.

He turned when Bill didn't move. "NOW!"

Reluctantly, the Cursebreaker moved to the bed, his gaze never leaving the man in front of him.

Severus adjusted the babe in his arms, and looked at his lover. "Firstly, I love you," he said, "My feelings for you have remained unchanged. My life however, has changed dramatically since I last saw you. The reason for which is in my arms."

"Secondly," he added, "you seem to be jumping to conclusions. You see me with a child, and you assume that I slept with a witch to obtain him. I did no such thing."

Severus slowly walked towards the bed. "Here, hold him," he said, placing the child in Bill's lap, and arranged his arms to support him better.

"Who does he look like?" he asked.

Bill looked down at the baby in his arms. It was the first time he had actually _looked_ at the boy. He had dark hair, like Severus' and the beginnings of the Snape nose. "He looks like you," he whispered.

The Slytherin reached forward, and tapped his wand on the boy's forehead. The dark hair turned lighter until it became a carrot red. The baby opened his eyes, and stared up at Bill. "Now who does he look like?"

"Me," whispered Bill, looking into the blue eyes which, he realised, were so very much like his own.

His lover smiled. "Imagine my surprise, after you failed to reappear and we all assumed you dead, to find out that I was carrying your child."

"But... how?"

"Remember the fertility potion I was working on for the Dark Lord? I was affected by the fumes."

"You never cheated on me?"

"Never. I could not wait to get you back. On Valentine's Day, William came along, red hair and all. He reminded me so much of you that it was as though you had pre-arranged a gift."

"Why the glamour?" Bill asked.

"I only altered his hair and eyes. After naming him William, I was afraid your mother might guess the truth and take him away. She was already upset enough that I had borne a child out of wedlock."

"You never told anyone he was mine?"

"Lupin guessed. I refused to acknowledge the fact. I would have been persecuted for laying the blame on a dead man."

Bill looked down at the baby in his arms. "I have a son."

"You have a son," Snape assured him.

"And you," the redhead asked, "Do I still have you, my love?"

To his great relief, Severus nodded. "Yes. If you will have me."

"I love you," Bill whispered.

"I love you, too."

The End

* * *

Feedback very welcome! 


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